A blog and nothing but since 2003. Some tech, lots of music, and if rambling was money, drinks are on me.
A post to a sadly non-existent blog
Right up there with Lindsay on my list of People Who Should Have Blogs Because They’d Write The Most Brilliant Blogs Ever is my friend Weston. He’s a had a couple (here and here) of brilliant one-post blogs, but they’ve never carried on. So, instead, he occasionally writes long emails and chooses a small audience. That’s nice and all, and it’s one of the criticisms that the anti-blog have (”Why don’t you just write an email?!”), but it’s unfortunate because, with an email, you have to select your audience, and there could be a lot more people out there interested in what you’re saying.
Because it deserves a larger audience, here are some select quotes from yesterday’s emails from Weston to me and Hans.
On a radio host named Karl Haas:
Karl used to sign off his program every week with, “Until next time [long pause] this is Karl Haas” leading to the obvious question, “Who will you be in the interim?”
On a solo violin recording from Tamsin Little:
The second track is worth a quick listen, if only for Little’s amazingly mellow tone and attacks. I have no documentary evidence of this, but I think her violin is made from kittens.
On the Homeland Security threat level system (he covered a lot of topics):
On their web site – Homeland Security’s ACTUAL web site – I was informed that the “United States government’s national threat level is Elevated, or Yellow.”
Oh, they’re a threat, alright.
What’s the point of having a color-coded terror system if you have to describe what the colors stand for every time the threat level changes?
What really gets me riled about this threat level chart, aside from its relative uselessness, is that it’s just not that difficult. 1 – 5. That’s it. No further explanation needed. Threat Level 1: Walk your dog. Threat Level 5: Have sex in the streets; it might be your last chance. Two on a scale of five makes sense, where blue on a scale of red does not.
On death:
I guess most everyone thinks it somehow cruel to take any pleasure at all from another’s death, but I figure if I can’t find joy in the deaths of others, how can I expect to enjoy my own?
If all this isn’t an argument in favor of blogs, then I don’t know what.
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February 27th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
As Johnny used to say, That is funny stuff.
That the funniest/wittiest people do not have blogs is cousin to the reality (”reality,” that’s another word I use for “my theory”) that I think of every time I see coverage of People’s “Most Beautiful People” issue. The People list is populated from the small part of the population who attempt to get famous. At least half, and probably more like 90%, of the ten most beautiful people in the country at any given time are doing things like selling insurance or developing photos at a drugstore.
I’m guessing the President was presented with a simple 1-5 threat scale but rejected it on the grounds he was told there would be no math.
February 28th, 2008 at 6:29 am
Totally agree with that. But…the thing about blogs is that anyone can do one. I think that’s one of the best things about them, but it’s the part that a lot of people have a hard time getting their head around. I think a lot of anti-blog people (which Weston is not, by the way) tend to think of writing as being the domain of columnists, but the entire beauty of blogs is it’s saying that anyone and everyone can write, and whether or not you have an audience is decided by the audience, not by an editor.
Forgot to mention, but Weston’s time in New Zealand a little over a year ago is back online and is absolutely worth your time. Not only are his photos incredible, but the captions are hilarious. A must.